ASA Vice President Aslanbek Badaev compared Khabib in an interview with Nurmagomedova and Islam Makhacheva – former and current UFC lightweight champion.
Nurmagomedov held the championship belt from April 2018 to late 2020, making three successful defenses, defeating Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje. His teammate Makhachev won the belt in the fall of 2022, and on June 1 at UFC 302 in Newark he will be able to match Nurmagomedov in the number of defenses if he defeats Dustin Poirier in the main fight of the tournament.
— Everyone compares Islam Makhachev and Khabib. Given his recent fights, Islam gives the impression of a man who also seemed to perform better at kickboxing.
— Islam is more diverse than Khabib. He’s good on the stand, good at wrestling, good all around, but it seemed like Khabib was impossible to beat. But when you look at Islam, such feelings do not appear. This was demonstrated by Adriano Martins, who eliminated him, even though it was a long time ago. This is what Volkanovski demonstrated, which shocked Islam. Khabib always gave the impression of an invincible man who would constantly move forward and you couldn’t stop him. I think Khabib’s pressure was on a different level, in terms of his jaw strength and, above all, the mental component. But again, that’s just my feeling.
— We traditionally consider Dagestanis to be good freestyle wrestlers, but Islam and Khabib have held more tournaments in combat sambo than in freestyle wrestling. Which base would you highlight more for them?
“A bit of everything, such a universal fight. » They know what leg passes, holds and sambo throws are. And they also know what difficulties and hard work are. They trained as Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts in the United States and competed in various tournaments.
How are Khabib and Islam different from other freestyle wrestlers in MMA? For example, the same Romero tries to translate, he does not succeed for a long time, then he finally translates, but his opponent stands up. There’s no control, nothing except takedowns, basically. But Habib and Islam have pressures, they have different translation tools. Khabib, like Islam, goes into the legs, the person steps back, he moves to the body, makes holds. That is, they have freestyle wrestling passes, sambo throws and jiu-jitsu grounds, and everything complements each other,” Badaev told .
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I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
